How your business can make a difference to children in Norfolk

By Brigette Currin 3 minute read

A new campaign is appealing for donations of pre-used corporate laptops to help school-age children in Norfolk access online learning.

Called Every Child Online, the campaign is being run by Norfolk County Council, in partnership with Norfolk Community Foundation backed by the Eastern Daily Press newspaper.

It aims to ensure every child has a digital device and internet connection to learn remotely at home to make sure they are not left behind in their learning because of digital disadvantage.

With most children learning from home until at least March, the high level of need has arisen because youngsters are now expected to complete a full curricular day of learning. This means multiple devices may be needed to enable every child in a family to participate in online classes and adults to work from home.

It is estimated that Norfolk’s 430 schools and academies need around 6,000 devices and at least 1,000 households with school-age children are unable to connect to the internet.

 

So, we’re asking businesses and organisations in Norfolk to donate their pre-used corporate devices to our campaign so they can be repurposed and distributed to schools where they are most needed.

Your donation, no matter how small, could help a child unlock the skills they need to become a model employee or a business leader of the future in Norfolk.

How to donate:

 

If you have made a donation and would like to discuss some support in putting together some PR surrounding your efforts, please contact the Norfolk County Council communications team at pressoffice@norfolk.gov.uk and we can make arrangements for this with the EDP.

 

Donated pre-used devices will be tested, refurbished and distributed by the county council. The preferred tablets are Apple iPads or Samsung or Lenovo tablets, which work with the Play Store, or Chromebooks with a minimum of 2GB of RAM available. The minimum specification for laptops is Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 with a minimum i3 processor and minimum 4GB of RAM available.

Any second-hand devices should be wiped/reformatted. Advice and guidance is available on how to do this from devices@norfolk.gov.uk. Once received, the Schools IT Team will fully re-image devices into Windows 10 or Chromebook devices and issue to schools within a week of donation.